Latest Posts

Associations are built by and for members, which is why one association promised to put its 15,000th member on the cover of its magazine. The old saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is antiquated. This is the Twitter era. If you want anybody to read what you have to say, your cover better say something interesting.

Do you have a three-tiered (platinum, gold, silver) event sponsorship offering? Have you offered the same sponsorship opportunities year after year? Is your sponsorship revenue stagnant or declining? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, your exhibit and event sponsorship offerings may need a facelift.

Building a nonprofit isn’t easy. It takes funding, vision and—most importantly—relationships. More than any other industry, nonprofits thrive on connections. After all, making a positive impact requires nonprofits to tap into human emotions. If you’re ready to grow your organization, start by crafting authentic, two-way relationships. Here are six ways to do just that.

The more things change, the more things stay the same. When we conducted our inaugural communication benchmarking study in 2011, we were surprised that association leaders rated live events No. 1 among two dozen association communication channels that we asked about. Young people don’t like face-to-face interaction, right? Everyone’s cutting back on travel budgets, right? With staff shortages everywhere, no one can afford to spend time out of the office, right? Not so fast.

I get really annoyed that my phone hasn’t accepted “Pinterest” as a word – it constantly autocorrects it, not unlike “nom,” “hai,” and other lolcat speak in my vernacular – even though Pinterest is a hugely popular social media platform. So popular that, according to Pew Research Center, it was used by 28% of all adult internet users last year, up from 21% in 2013. And it gets even more widespread if you look just at online women, 42% of whom are ‘pinning.’ That’s a huge audience that a nonprofit organization can engage and inspire.

Would you like to jumpstart your fundraising for your nonprofit? One of the most important tools I've seen is helping board members get comfortable telling their own story. Getting board members to be fully present In my work with nonprofits around the world, I find a common element in those with high performing boards: their board members feel released to be fully themselves. This is often evidenced by their ability to share their personal story.

Last week, I attended and presented at the DoGoodData Conference in Chicago. The conference is expertly curated by Andrew Means who has shaped the agenda and speakers into an incredible learning experience for both the human and technical sides of data of for good. This is the best conference to learn about data for nonprofits and suggest that you register for 2016. The DoGoodData community understands that good data practice is a balance of both the human side and the technical skills. It is like yin and yang, because these seeming contrary skills sets are interdependent. You look at this yin yang narrowly as data visualization and spreadsheet data, but it includes organizational culture and its influence on decision-making – from consensus building on indicators, agility in responding to data with action, and using data for learning and continuous improvement. I took lots of notes during the day, including this storify of curated tweets.

One component relations professional explains how a focus on member value is crucial to healthy chapter/national relationships. When politicians bicker and fail to legislate, who gets left behind? Citizens. Or, when parents argue and fight, who feels the negative effects? Kids. And when an association and its affiliated chapter organizations clash, who misses out on the best possible value? Yep, members.

Mission statements have often been ponderous things, suitable mainly for an internal audience and to impress institutional funders. Today, mission statements are often shortened to a few, pithy words that can easily be used across communication channels. The best ones both express the authentic purpose of the charity and serve as a building block of its branding and marketing. An effective mission statement is more important than ever.

Get a Special Report on Simplifying Membership Management

Enter your e-mail and receive this special report and updates in your inbox.